Complacency Takes Over Top Spot

I have been watching for the BCS rankings to come out every Sunday afternoon with much anticipation. Several weeks ago Alabama took over the #1 position in the BCS standings after Texas fell to Texas Tech.

Now I guess Alabama controls its own destiny. All they have to do is win against Mississippi State this week, beat Auburn two weeks down the road, defeat Florida in the SEC Championship and Alabama is in the National Championship Game. The latter will be a huge obstacle, but I think Alabama may match up to Florida better than many teams have done this season.

Speaking of taking over first place...I think "complacency" has taken over as the biggest culprit in the Christian hemisphere. Complacency creates more paralysis than any disease that I can think of. What is complacency?

According to Webster, complacency is the calm or secure satisfaction with oneself or one's lot. It is self-satisfaction accompanied by unawareness of actual dangers or deficiencies.

Mainstream America seems to be far too complacent as we get into the early years of the 21st century. If relationships in the family unit seem to be in place, dad sits in his easy chair as if things could not be any better. If mom is satisfied, she goes shopping and says to herself, "Only in America." If the children's lives are stable, little Johnny proceeds with his game on Play Station as if this will go on the rest of his life.

If dad can go hunting every fall, sit in front of his new big screen plasma TV every weekend, and play softball a couple times a week, life doesn't get any better than that. If mom can buy Christmas presents for everyone this December and plan a family vacation for next summer, what else could you want? If our personal and family schedules are full to overflowing every week, isn't that all part of the American dream?

Those of us in the ministry think we are called to orchestrate the Sunday morning rush in and out of the auditorium. It is so important that we use parking lot greeters, door greeters, and hospitality ambassadors throughout our buildings. The celebration worship service has become central focus rather than a venue to corporately worship.

The fellowship hall where meals used to be served has been remodeled into something else and is just full of dust from non-use. We have acknowledged that people may not have time to come to a mid-week prayer service. There are dance classes, soccer, softball, and special band rehearsals. Weekdays are meant for work, school, extra curricular activities, and catching up on what did not get done yesterday. Sunday is reserved for God, unless The Houston Marathon is being run, or the Outer Mongolian Fine Arts Festival is being conducted. Mark something else on your calendar--I want to take my son to the Antique Car Show that is held every year on Easter Sunday, but hey, "That will make room for someone who is not in church two Sundays a month like I am."

Everything is about ME. My work usually comes first, followed by my leisure time, maybe my family, and then I'll squeeze God is there somewhere...maybe even being part of the church where I belong. Don't ask me to do anything outside of Sunday morning. I'll usher if you need someone. I'll sing in the choir, but no mid-week rehearsals. And the walls continue to be built as each month rolls on.

When paralysis sets in, one's limbs become useless. That is what is happening across America and complacency becomes more deeply embedded because I am trying to satisfy myself with what the world is offering. I become more and more blinded and I can fail to see the dangers that lie ahead at a so-called "dead man's curve".